Some critical notes in regards to game mechanics. I strongly suspect that city hall is a factor in the mechanics for getting & earning celebrity star levels. Additionally a police department without a bulletin board out front isn't the greatest for pi work. As has been noted starting off with "No!" logic is probably best for the pi track if the town isn't fully built up. Bramble started with two, maybe three logic points. I think he would have had better odds starting with none.If on his transition day he still hasn't cleared his career and if he hasn't maxed athletic, he'll be getting kicked out. I started out with an idea of who might be heir, that has changed. I however didn't want to do more than pair up potential mates before the older three cleared their careers. Not long, about 1 sim week, after medical was cleared, than Button's and Burbon cleared their careers on the same day. Which means science and military are now cleared. Yay. A quick check of both funds and the list of needed homes, and Buch, Button, and Burbon all moved out together taking everyone's if dolls with them. That sim week was a very busy one as just about everyone transitioned to the adult stage. Which has me feeling very nervous about if I'll make it to generation 3. There was a slight hic up along the way, which left me very grateful for having medical cleared already. The fireplace caught fire a total of three times, and Burbon a total of two times. No more fireplace, the space is getting converted to a partial bath room. Once the siblings moved out Brutus & Bramble had an easier time making friends and also became eligible as potential heirs. Additionally several townies had recently transitioned to young adult. So with a fresh level 10 promotion under his belt and hints of spring in the air, Brutus took the town with an eye for a permanent partner. Unfortunately for me, Brutus's potentially perfect partner who had just transitioned never triggered the romance options as a young adult. So he went with his second option who it turns out is 17 days from elder, yipes. Brutus is 4 days, double yipes! On the plus side Brutus does have the fertility treatment so with luck and a couple of carefully timed multiples, I'll make it to teen for gen 3 before Brandy bites it. Brandy is engaged but she's on level 9 of her career, so if she can clear communications yay, if not then wah. I think if she could have earned a celebrity star she'd be done already As to the burglar who showed up, I have no clue as to what she took from the first floor, 2nd floor she took the second shower. Which was replaced. Here's what the town looks like now. The older siblings moved to the house by the science center & military base. Ps, For those who wanted a better look at Brutus, the heir.
Here is the best pic of Brutus (ignore the green lass, she was not compatible) I have from this round of play along with his mate, Jenni.
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Still no heir yet, probably won't be for a bit, as the three candidates need to get 4 friends who aren't relatives & then find a sim with a compatible zodiac sign. Cover photo is an updated over view of the neighborhood. Key note regarding the additional 2 parts of education: Since I have ambitions reaching level 5 of daycare provider will be the path for education pre-k clear; a base game option would be to go to homes in network (or the big park) and train toddlers walk & talk, only potty train if a potty chair is available - which means becoming friends/good friends with the parents. If the neighbors don't have toddlers, reroll the career per master thief rules. The one thing I haven't decided yet is the number of tots, whether it should be 5 or 10. Completing this unlocks teaching toddler skills & half unlocks the toddler toys locked by entertainment & super sim skilling stuff. It also adds a parent participation "pre-school" education center to the town. For education secondary education bg/rh education clear Plus under the logic challenges complete the teacher extraordinaire (20 hours tutoring children) & skill professor (30 hours tutoring teens to elder). Completing this unlocks classes at rabbit holes, after school programs (generations required) for teens & children (also locked by other rules), and university (provided travel is unlocked). Given my mistake regarding which rabbit hole the graduation time off was tied to I made sure that Buch, Button's, and Burbon spent about half their work time or more when not working hard making friends with their boss &/or coworkers so that when the remaining 3 transition I don't have to have anyone change jobs. Time not spent working is spent on improving skills. One thing that has come in handy for Buch is that he's a genius, a looser but still a genius, which has helped him with his skills. Weekend/days off I try to remember to have the older sims take the teens to the park for socializing. You'll notice that the science building is a regular building, that's because the lunar lakes science center is a giant spaceship instead of the tiny portal building. So mentally I story line that the science building is a fake front made of snow & waste (yeah I know ewww ;) ) and inside is a ladder going to an underground work space. I suppose I could have gone with a hidden basement build, but I don't want to add anything that might cause routing problems. As it is sometimes the npc's living at the bunkers get stuck & reset by error trap. I think what happens is a sim sometimes climbs out of a bunk bed on the wrong side of the wall and ends up standing around in the air outside of the bunker. (Sorry no picture, I forgot to up it last post.) For the two newer rabbit hole careers, workers and bosses tend to be turning over a fair bit which is frustrating. Fortunately both had steady bosses that they were friends with in time for the crucial graduation time off. I suspect that the lack of npc's staying has to do with a lack of showers & other amenities around town. The older three cruise through their careers fairly fast, and I belatedly remember that if the career bar is cm's from the top they can ask their bosses for a promotion, just not from level 9 to 10. The younger three got one more day at school before birthday's finally rolled around. Brutus (long hair) & Bramble (singed) transition a few days before Brandy. Which means more career rolls. Brutus
Bramble
Brandy
Ea's pre built studio sit's on one heck of a big lot, 64x64 to be exact. The only lot's that size are ones that were designated residential. I will only need 30 residential lot's (households) in total, max per apocalypse rules, so I sacrificed the big lot out by the docks to the movie lot. Again I'm role playing that it's built from snow and trash to hide the ladder to the basement. Even though the careers were rolled at time of transition, I didn't have anyone sign up for their assigned careers until after their graduation ceremony. Woot! Woot!
With 2 days before his transition from young adult to adult Buch cleared medical. No I don't have sp set to progress them faster. Like I mentioned he did get the genius trait while growing up, and no I have not picked any traits, they've all been assigned by game mechanics. Yay, birth control, increased chances for multiples, and showers! Not just for the Steels, the whole town. Which means editing houses, their are 17?18 now. Clearing medical added 1 house as it's a max of 3 npc sims for that track. For the profession I only added 1 house, probably could have gone with 0. A few of the houses are still empty so those were easy, the occupied houses .... I cheated. More specifically tce true, houses of family friends/relatives only, buy on this lot and add a shower. The money comes from the Steels family funds, but it's Monday so that money will go by-by anyway. Hopefully the addition of showers will keep the npc turnover down. With Grey having reached elder stage and Jacques only a day or two off the focus is now all on the kids. The elders are around for a good bit, and I was right Jacques made it as far as level 8 medical before becoming an elder. If his athletic skill had been at 10 I could have left him to try for the last two levels, sadly he only had level 5 fitness (not for a lack of trying). So he had to quit right away. With two non working elders in the house the cooking fell on Buch until Button & Burbon aged up. Earning money via writing books has also fallen on the kids so bills can get paid. They get to attend school about once a week, due to all the snow days. Brandy finally aged up to child. She has the same hair style as her older sister Burbon. A few days later and it's Button's & Burbon's turns to transition to teen. The upside of clearing primary education right off the bat is I can have them read the skill books. On the rare days that they go to school, they climb down the ladder to the underground school facility. Time fly's, and everyone takes a hand at writing books and building skills. Button's managed to set the grill on fire. Yet this wasn't the most eventful thing to happen to the family over the course of the two+ sim weeks I played. Finally it's Brutus & Brambles (I'm not sure which twin is which) turn to transition. At almost 90 sim days of age, even with elder age set to 4 days, Grey finally transitioned on as well. The next sim day Jacques faded, which reset everyone's 2 days of mourning moodlet. Sigh. I've never been so happy for sims to go to school, although 2 of them still managed to be close enough to get singed despite not being on the lot. O.O A neighbor came over to freak out while everyone was at school. Thankfully I think the only structure damage was the ladders getting burned. I think this takes care of a portion of the alien tech lift. ;) Oh and it also took out the ITF portal, lol. :) Apocalypse snow, so toxic it burns without melting. Back to skilling. Brandy's transition rolled around and I had hoped she would outgrow the sing affect, sadly that wasn't the case. When Burbon transitioned to teen she acquired the coward trait. I have learned that cowards are even scared of the flies from the dirty laundry and dishes, so she's constantly jumping around and freaking out no matter what she's doing. Which can be both funny & annoying. Not long after Brandy's transition it is finally time for Buch to transition to young adult. He rolled a 5 for the career chart. Originally I would have sent him for military, however with two singed siblings who are heir eligible I had him follow his dad's foot steps and go into medicine. Which also meant no changes to the neighborhood. Note: I had him go to the hospital to get the job right away, but the more I think on it I probably should have waited for the next morning. I also didn't factor for graduation because there's no city hall in the town yet. More on that a bit later. While Buch has work daily, the rest still only get to go to school once a week. Darned snow days. Happily due to starting with around level 3 or 4 logic, Buch cruised through 3 promotions easily during his first week of work, Yay. If I'm lucky he will be done with medicine before I have to select an heir. Given Button's (grey skin - brown hair) & Burbon (pale skin - grey hair) are close in age to Buch I was happy to see them transition a few days later. Which changed to frustration once I discovered that the game mechanics that trigger the graduation event is tied to the school rabbit hole not city hall. :( I'm giving myself a one time pass on the boss must be friends, since I didn't realize the mechanics were tied to the school building. However by the time the other 3 age up the first 3 need to be good friends with bosses or all coworkers. Button's rolled a 6, not what I was hoping for, after a bit of agonizing she was assigned to science. Burbon, the coward, rolled a 5 ... guess who's now in the military, lol. Potentially interesting depending on if the coward trait affects work mechanics. I only snapped one picture, don't ask, sometimes I forget.
Since none of the adults had work again until Monday I had them escort themselves and the 3 remaining teens to the park for a day out. I also forgot to get some overhead shots of the community. The science & military facility were added away from the central town area. Four more empty bunkers were also added. In this picture Button's is talking to a new community member (imported by sp from the sim bin). Grey's young adult and adult days flew by in a manner. There are a few things I wish I had done a bit differently. Primarily I wish I had waited until after she had cleared primary education to tweak sp. Two reasons only, better odds for a younger spouse, and less worried about maintaining social interactions. The best way to get marathon runner and fitness nut is to have the sim jog everywhere allowed in network. The radio played key for the body builder. Then it was just a matter of finishing up the writing skill. (We shall not discuss the hoops, for the pics, for they are multiple and a pain in the arse. Because of win10. >:| ) Due to socializing needs, it took a bit longer than I wanted (as in she was two days into her adult stage, I had hoped to finish while she was a young adult) for Grey to finish the skill aspects of the primary education clear. She flew through the bookstore requirements in her first week in a half at the bookstore. Even with no coworker, the bookstore hours bumped her social needs daily. Once done I had her pair up with Jacques. I knew he was in the adult stage as well, (he's 2 sim days younger than Grey) but it was him or wait a few more days for the teens to become young adults. Getting them paired proved to be tricky because of his party animal & family orientated traits. I did have to have Grey "steal" him away from another sim ... twice. First time from his sp generated gf, whom sp provided pop ups at minimal of once a day of them fighting. Not once did they move beyond gf & bf in the 20+ game days of no interference from me. When I talked him into splitting up with his gf, I forgot to pair him up with Grey as a couple, because he didn't romance easily. I honestly thought he might have the unflirty or commitment issues trait. Because I forgot to pair him with Grey beyond romantic interest, sp stepped in and married him to an elder neighbor. Sigh. I have since tweaked sp so that elder females won't romance/marry anyone but other elders. I hate to do that but since they can't create more sims it's better that way. Jacques Once I had them paired up properly, as in married. It was time for some important steps; roll his career - he got medical; add two rabbit hole lots - school & hospital; add four residential lots - 2 more for Grey's clear + 2 for the medical field; make simlets. Sadly despite an early meteoric rising in medicine Jacques won't be clearing his rolled career, he'll be transitioning to elder at level 8 medicine, nor is his athletic level at the requisite level 10 for him to work after elder transition. I did something I've rarely done before, I went for max capacity, and they had 6 simlets. I was very happy when having them work out to kids music resulted in 2 sets of twins. Names by birth order: Buch (not a typo - couldn't decide between Buck or Butch), Button (t1), Burbon (t2), Brutus (t1), Bramble (t2), Brandy. Five of the six simlets received the if doll. I swap the dolls between siblings. They still play with the doll, but it doesn't trigger the IF game mechanics. Button, or maybe it was Burbon could be in the candidate pool for heir, but I just don't like her so I'm excluding her for practical reasons. Buch transition to teen, and Brandy to toddler before Grey transitioned to elder. As tempting as it is to roll their careers now, nothing will get rolled until they transition to young adult. The heir will potentially be either Brutus, Bramble, or Brandy. Practical reasons being they are the youngest of the six which gives the older siblings a chance to clear a lift & die (or if someone gets military) or move out before the heir needs to make simlets. Having pre-rolled the career for my founder as part of setting up gave her an advantage over waiting until she transitioned to adult to learn her career. Roughly the equivalent of the education advantage when starting the challenge as a young adult. Grey would have needed to write for the income regardless though, to finish the second level and to get additional furniture for the shelter. The child stage days went fairly routine: Grey got to eat a cold bowl of canned soup, Papa licked the bowl clean. Grey would then write until to stressed to write. Happily because they came out of cas as family they were already friends so they could play tag to reduce stress. Depending on time Grey would write some more before bed for the night. The sink wasn't really a high priority early on, but it kept Papa occupied. The house grew slowly, until finally there were two completed stories and a small cold storage for leftovers (which they can't access). At this point most basic furnishings needed for just one sim have also been acquired. The 2x3 cold storage is a small advantage, since they are only supposed to have the two levels. I decided on the advantage because I didn't want to loose any floor space to food storage. The camera, which is being saved for a future generation, has been moved to the cold storage. Grey transitioned to teen (she acquired the loves to swim trait), elder stage was set down to 4 days for the remainder of the challenge, and no future generation will be allowed any free days. The routine stayed pretty much the same, the changes being instead of soup Grey got to grill hot dogs. The other change was pillow fighting instead of tag, because reading non-fiction does not raise fun. The day Grey finally had enough money to buy the chess table, just happened to be the same day that Papa passed away. A teen unable to go any were with no companion to talk to, turns out to be a very bad thing. Did you know that when a sims desperation gets low enough they will talk to inanimate objects? I didn't, I do now though. A new routine was formed: Get up, eat moldy leftovers, maybe clean up dirty dish, jog outside a little bit, recycle papers, pay bills if due, then wait until she talked to the trash can/doorway/food/dirty clothes/.... , then Grey's mood would be recovered enough to have her write a book. By the time Grey reached her transition to young adult she was at level 7 writing skill, level 2 handiness, and level 2 athletic. She had also written 16 books, 4 of which were non-fiction best sellers, and 2 were instant hits. All book titles (if I remember I'll make a list) were related to survival or education. The following day Grey was thrilled to finally be allowed off the lot. I have her jog as much as possible when going to or from anywhere, once she hit's the 500 meters jogged she'll focus on cardio & strength at the radio. She took her assigned job at the bookstore. Then headed over to the park. I ahve to be careful with who she talks to at the park as so far almost all adults around are the banned paparazzi. By the end of her first week of work, she was already a level two bookstore clerk, the advantage of ambitious and workaholic as traits. Grey was also up to level 8 or 9 of writing, gained 1 skill point of painting, and level 5 athletic. I had to step in and tinker with nraas sp settings, because by this point there were still no neighbors moved in to the 3 available houses. By day 3 of being an adult with sp set to 10 instead of zero, Grey finally had neighbors to visit. All 3 neighboring houses have the same set up. I finally settled on where a few of the critical yet to come lot's are going to end up.
Given no one can visit the library until journalism is lifted (even unbuilt) I've decided to move it to where Rflong had the school. This means I will need to change the lot tags in edit town mode though. The hospital will go where city hall was, and city hall will go where a shopping center (generic lot) was at. Police when it is finally rolled for will go where the hospital was, and the "?" will either be the art gallery or the military base, or who knows. The lot where the school is going is/was a 60x60 residential lot. I'm using the Steels for some test play of a twisted Apocalypse. I'll be using the apoc rules as the base rules. Here's where the twist comes in: Only a few lots will be built at this time, founders lot, the big park, the needed bookstore, and their career role. I considered playing with the no free food fridge mod, that however forces me to take naturalist for the first clear as well as making the grocery store the rabbit hole for the network, so I'm leaving the mod out. For some careers/clears I'm bringing back some of the old prerequisites. I'm looking to make an already tricky challenge even harder, but not impossible. ;) To accommodate all of the lots that come with both the store content and ep's I'm using Rflong's build version of Legacy III island. From the setup page.
(Not rolling, not an option since it determines which building, if needed, will be the rabbit hole for the set up.)
I rolled a 3 so Grey, once she's grown up will be attempting education - primary* base game method. Which makes the network, city hall (to be built eventually), big park, the (future) library, and the 3 neighbors who will be lots close to the founders lot. This also helps me determine which part of the island to settle on. While it was tempting to select one of the more remote residential lots, I'll be using one (40x40) just slightly less remote in the farm area of the island. Dealing with boat travel for an apoc is not ideal when you have to deal with curfew. Other than work full moon days will be a full day curfew day. I'm keeping the extra handicaps from the tourney attempt, although I'm going to give myself a little more fluidity on 'the eyes have it' so that it's not just hair color. The one non network lot to be added, as mentioned above, is the bookstore. Getting skill books is semi essential to the founders beginning. I say semi essential, because through game play there has been more than one occasion where an active sim has received a skill book with their promotion. That bit of good fortune is not predictable though, so following the rule of buy books, especially gardening, is best. As with other apoc challenges any residential lot not being built on just yet is being converted to community lot, the one change I'm making so I don't have to much headache later as I need more than 4 residential lots is before changing lot type I'm labeling the lots "residential". My why convert to commercial is because it cuts down on homeless sims & game lag, it also forces the game to only populate the apoc builds I place. As with the first portion of the Verde's randomcy play I'll be mining** pre-built rabbit hole lots from ea worlds. Not sure which ones I'll use and which ones I'll build as needed, but it's good to be prepared. Determining How Many homes to add with each generation can get semi tricky. Happily There's a great tutorial on populating worlds which has a handy "Resident Numbers" chart towards the bottom of it. So for education the minimum working population is 2 and the max is 5. Therefore one my founder clears education I'll add 2 more residential lots, and when the heir rolls their career I'll add another 2 lots. Essentially adding 1 to 5 residential lots with each generation. The exception's will be if there is an alternate method of clear for the career rolled, in which case I'll probably use random.org to decide method. By necessity of how I'm playing and setting up the game, at least the first heir will also have to roll for their career on the day of their transition to YA. Once a sim clears Architect, I'll do a mini build boom for any remaining rabbit hole/employment community lots. *I'm splitting education in two. Education - Primary is the original apoc education, however it only unlocks education/school for tot to teen, and does not include college or classes at rabbit holes. With education Primary, in addition to adding the school building I'll be adding a preschool to the town that includes store education content. Eventually I'll go over education - secondary. ** Mining lots takes time, part of which is due to having to fully exit the game & restart it when switching worlds so as to avoid code overlap. The code overlap glitch was caught early on in s3's run by those with better coding tech skills than me. Essentially as I recall when you close a town, return to the main menu and then open a different town, some bit of code from town 1 tags along and causes eventual corruption of the second town. Sadly I don't have a link anymore for the better explanation. Rules & restrictions might flux as I play, if I scrap any as I go I'll try to remember to explain why. Speaking of "why", while I prefer wordpress over weebly, the way weebly handles picture media, means I (at this time) don't have to worry about a storage cap, so for now here I stay. |
The Restrictions
Additional Handicaps - Applies to all generations
Rite of Passage: In order to prove their worthiness as heir, before your sim can marry they must have made at least 4 good friends not including their future spouse. The Age of Aquarius: May only marry (or breed with) sims with compatible zodiac signs The Eyes Have It: All heirs must have the same eye/hair color as the founder. No Country for Old Sims: With a lack of proper healthcare, sims don't live very long and easily die of common diseases and complications of elder-hood. Elders living more than a few days are a rare occurrence. Change the Elder lifespan of your sims to only 4 days for the entire challenge. Greedy Gangsters: Not only you have to pay the mob on Mondays, now you have to do it on Thursdays too! You must continue your Monday payments even after you lift Criminal. Archives
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